Challenge
Working in a global market and faced with strong competition, CMR Surgical wanted to develop a new website, built on a modern, responsive, and flexible platform that would allow the business to engage customers through exceptional CX and UX, and that would become the central platform for marketing efforts and commercial activities.
CMR Surgical needed to change the image of the company from an emerging and rapidly growing technology start-up, into a world-class medical device company. They wanted to reflect that the Versius surgical robotic system has the potential to transform surgery for people around the world.
CMR Surgical was looking to partner with a digital agency that can offer more than just website build development capabilities. They wanted a long-term digital partner, skilled in design, development, digital marketing, and project management, that could challenge and enable CMR Surgical to progress with their digital maturity in a way that exceeds customer expectations as the company grows globally.
Solution
The benefits of minimal access surgery for patients are well proven, and include reduced pain, and reduced risk of surgical site infections. However, minimal access surgery is complex and demanding to perform for a surgeon. It was important that the website fully showcased the key features of the Versius product, designed to support surgeons to perform more minimal access surgery:
The fully articulated wrists, direct hand to instrument mapping, and integrated stable 3D HD visualisation on Versius provides incredible precision, control, dexterity and superb depth perception. This gives surgeons the means to perform surgical steps with greater accuracy and ease.
Versius has instinctive instrument and vision controls and an open console design allowing surgeons to sit upright or stand, keeping them comfortable for longer each day, with the potential to prolong careers.
Versius integrates seamlessly into existing workflows and doesn’t take over valuable operating room (OR) space. With a small footprint and ease of movement, Versius can be introduced to the OR easily and quickly.
The website needed to appeal to not only CMR’s primary target audience of surgeons and purchasing decision-makers within healthcare providers, but also future employees, investors, and the media, reflecting the company’s ambition and delivering the key messages to each stakeholder group. It also had to support CMR’s mission to bring the potential benefits of minimal access surgery to those who are yet to appreciate its potentially revolutionary impact.
The brief was clear but ambitious – create a website that, like their own technology, pushes the boundaries of design and engage those that use it.
Built on the Sitecore Experience Platform, the world’s leading digital experience platform, the website is fully responsive and easy to update thanks to Sitecore’s user-friendly content management system. It includes the key elements of:
An immersive parallax home page with a clear benefit statement, backed with strong imagery and video
Details about the Versius surgical system, including instrument range, support, conditions, and clinical evidence
A section to publish press releases, an image and video library, and an events sectionInformation about CMR Surgical’s mission, leadership team, medical advisory board, and investor information
A careers page detailing benefits, current vacancies, and why CMR is a great place to work
A suite of custom Sitecore components
The Codehouse team wanted the website to reflect the personality of the business - to convey the excitement and future aspirations the CMR team spoke so passionately about. To enable this, several Experience Design workshops were held at the CMR Surgical's headquarters in Cambridge, where the Codehouse design team were able to experience the Versuis surgical robotic system for themselves. This enabled the Codehouse team to understand the organisation and to collaboratively generate ideas for how the website could look, and how users should feel when engaged.
The project then moved into the UX design phase and into UI, with both project teams challenging and pushing each other to deliver an experience that would impress and engage users. It was fantastic to see some of the ideas that were conceived in those early ideation sessions start to take shape.
Moving into the Build phase, the technical foundations of the website were established, and the infrastructure set up on Microsoft Azure, part of the Codehouse Managed Service offering.
The website then went live, reflecting some truly leading-edge design and development techniques, with the outcome being something that both CMR Surgical and Codehouse have been extremely proud to launch to the world.
Versius has an elegant and beautiful design, and is captivating to operate – something which is directly reflected in the website and particularly in how the product page is navigated as users scroll. The new website is a platform that positions CMR Surgical as a leader in their space, through design, animation, imagery, interaction, and function.
CMR Surgical is at the start of a long and exciting journey, as is its digital presence. Already integrated with Salesforce CRM and Pardot, the website will soon be tailored to serve an increasing number of international markets. It will become the main gateway for all those who need to interact with the business – including surgeons, surgical teams and hospitals – providing interactive access to training, information, and useful insights.
Results
CMR Surgical has a new future-proof website that portrays the business as a global medical device company in a beautiful, human, relevant, and British way. Reinforcing CMR Surgical as a credible alternative to existing medical device giants, it showcases the elegant Versius surgical robotic system in a way that would make the ‘C’ suite of any medical establishment proud to have CMR’s system within their portfolio.
This ambitious website, both from a design and technical perspective, reflects the scale of CMR Surgical’s ambitions. A next-generation website for a next-generation organisation that is in the process of transforming surgery, for good.
Visit the CMR Surgical website at www.cmrsurgical.com
